On World Environment Day, soak in these amazing Earth photos

It's a day to see the environment through what may be a slightly different lens: 50 incredible images of our planet.

By Lori Cuthbert

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A California sea lion hunts for fish on a kelp paddy at Cortes Bank, a seamount off the coast of San Diego. It's a trove of marine life that deserves protection, conservationists say. (See 50 dramatic photos from Earth)

Photograph by Brian Skerry, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Camel thorn trees in Namib-Naukluft Park, Namibia look like a painting when photographed at dawn.

Photograph by Frans Lanting, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Orphan elephants mudding in a human-made waterhole in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya.

Photograph by Michael Nichols, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Fire burns through a wheat field in Madhya Pradesh, India. The region has experienced worsening drought over the years.

Photograph by Matthieu Paley, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Grand Prismatic Spring, the world's third largest hot spring, is seen from above in the Midway Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park.

Photograph by Paul Chesley, Nat Geo Image Collection

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In Palau's biodiverse waters, scientists find life is thriving under the seas. Here, a tiny goby camouflages with a branch of red coral.

Photograph by Enric Sala, Nat Geo Image Collection

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A goliath birdwing hatches in a kitchen in West Papua, Indonesia.

Photograph by Evgenia Arbugaeva, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Pivot irrigation must be done in a circular pattern. Seen from above, a farmer rakes hay into windrows.

Photograph by Michael Melford, Nat Geo Image Collection

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A giraffe fawn grazes from a tree in Loisaba Wilderness in northern Kenya. Giraffes' primary food source is acacia leaves, which most other herbivores cannot reach.

Photograph by Ami Vitale, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Rich soil called Palouse loess covers the rolling fields of eastern Washington in the western U.S.

Photograph by Michael Melford, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Workers harvest celery from a farm in California's Salinas Valley. The region is famous for agriculture.

Photograph by George Steinmetz, Nat Geo Image Collection

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A park ranger at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya is nuzzled by an 18-month-old black rhino named Kilifi who was hand-raised with two other baby rhinos.

Photograph by Ami Vitale, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Ziglab Dam in Jordan has seen six years of drought. Measuring sticks record how much water has been lost.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Phoenix, Arizona, built in the middle of a desert, requires vast amounts of water to keep its suburbs green.

Photograph by Vincent Laforet, Nat Geo Image Collection

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A woman attempts to clean what is left of her home in the mountains of southern Haiti weeks after Hurricane Matthew.

Photograph by Andrea Bruce, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Children play on the shore of Manila Bay in the Philippines, which is polluted by household waste, plastics, and other trash.

Photograph by Randy Olson, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Plastic caught on a barbed wire fence.

Photograph by John Burcham, Nat Geo Image Collection

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The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Photograph by Carolyn Drake, Nat Geo Image Collection

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A Kurdish family picnics in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.

Photogrpah by Yukri Kozyrev, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Fleeing from a predator, emperor penguins swim at the water's surface in Antarctica.

Kids pick through garbage thrown off a bridge to find pieces they can sell to recycle shops.

Photograph by Matthieu Paley, Nat Geo Image Collection

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A worker harvests palm fruit on a plantation in Sarawak, one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. These mature trees are about 25 years old, which means they will soon be cut down and replaced.

Photograph by Pascal Maitre, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Wildflowers undergo a "superbloom" in Death Valley National Park thanks to high amounts of rainfall from the previous year.

Photograph by Jonathan Irish, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Pools of evaporating salt water produce slurries of different colors in Niger.

Photograph by George Steinmetz, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Conservation rangers and Congolese Army soldiers conduct a long range patrol to locate and destroy an armed rebel group.

Photograph by Brent Stirton, Nat Geo Image Collection

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A girl splashes in Lake Urmia, Iran. Summertime bathers wade into waters colored red by salt-loving bacteria and algae. Tourists from across Iran have come here for generations, but the number of visitors has fallen as the lake has shrunk by 80 percent since the 1980s.

Tania López, seven, plays with her cat in a room in her Guatemala home where walls were blackened by an old open fire. The new stove, provided by StoveTeam International, is efficient and safe to touch.

Photograph by Lynn Johnson, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Beef sits on display at a supermarket in Dallas, Texas.

Photograph by Brian Finke, Nat Geo Image Collection

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After sheets of clear plastic trash have been washed in the Buriganga River, a woman spreads them out to dry so they can be sold to a recycler in Bangladesh.

Photograph by Randy Olson, Nat Geo Image Collection

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In the Cave of Crystals in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico, massive beams of selenite dwarf three explorers.

Photograph by Carsten Peter, Nat Geo Image Collection

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The historic center of Cerro de Pasco, Peru, has been largely consumed by a quarter-mile-deep mine, now operated by a subsidiary of Volcan Compañía Minera. The mine produces mostly lead and zinc.

Photograph by Tomas van Houtryve

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Giant Sequoia trees tower in the old growth forest of California's Sequoia National Park.

Photograph by Keith Ladzinski, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Parakeets with cobalt-colored wings flock to a pool to eat clay in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador.

Photograph by Tim Laman, Nat Geo Image Collection

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The Yanan expressway crosses under the North-South expressway in Shanghai, China.

Photograph by Andrew Moore, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Parents do what they can to protect their children from dangerous smog in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, one of the world's most polluted cities. Here a mother adjusts her son's mask before he walks to school.

Photograph by Matthieu Paley

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Steam and smoke rise from the cooling towers and chimneys of a power plant in Juliette, Georgia.

Photograph by Robb Kendrick, Nat Geo Image Collection

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A night view of a waterfall and icicles in Iceland, accented by the northern lights.

Photograph by Babak Tafreshi, Nat Geo Image Collection

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In Canada's moss-draped Great Bear Forest, a Kermode bear eats a fish.

Photograph by Paul Nicklen, Nat Geo Image Collection

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A worker uses a mallet to dislodge frozen tuna from a Chinese cargo vessel docked at the port of General Santos in the Philippines.

Photograph by Adam Dean, Nat Geo Image Collection

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Fireflies in flight in the forest at Santa Clara Sanctuary in Nanacamilpa, Mexico.

Photograph by Kirsten Luce, Nat Geo Image Collection

Tap images for captions

Created in 1974 by the UN, World Environment Day happens every June 5.
Hosted by a different country each year—this year it’s China—the day seeks
to raise public awareness of environmental issues.

“The celebration of this day provides us with an opportunity to broaden
the basis for an enlightened opinion and responsible conduct by individuals,
enterprises and communities in preserving and enhancing the environment,”
says the UN’s website.

In celebration of World Environment Day,
we’ve collected 50 of our most stunning photos of the natural world.

PUBLISHED June 5, 2019

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